File:The crusaders; or, Scenes, events, and characters, from the times of the crusades (1859) (14783147442).jpg

Identifier: crusadersorscene00keig (find matches)
Title: The crusaders; or, Scenes, events, and characters, from the times of the crusades
Year: 1859 (1850s)
Authors: Keightley, Thomas, 1789-1872
Subjects: Crusades
Publisher: London J.W. Parker
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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l supply yielded by the perennial fount of Siloah wassalt and unpalatable, the wells had all been filled up bythe Saracens, and though light clouds continually excitedhopes of rain, these hopes were continually deceived, andeven the dew of heaven was withheld. Water could onlybe procured at a distance of six miles, whence it wasfetched in skins on the backs of beasts of burden; andwhen the pilgrims repaired for it, they were assailed bythe Arabs, who lay in ambush*rn the caverns and thickets.The supply thus procured was never sufficient for thearmy; it was sold at a high price, and the pilgrimsfought with each other for the possession of small quan-tities of it. The horses and mules were the first to suffer from thewant of water. They died in heaps, and their bodies in-fected the air. The pilgrims themselves then became thevictims of thirst, and of the burning heat, and the fatalsouth wind, against which they had no shelter. Theydug holes in the earth and lay naked in them, and placed
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1099.) WARLIKE PREPARATIONS. 115 fresh sods on their bosoms to allay the heat, but in vain ;they drank blood, and licked the bottoms of stones whichthey raised up out of the ground^ but the refreshmentthus obtained was only momentary. Their sufferings be-neath the walls of Jerusalem far exceeded those at An-tioch. There it was hunger and the rigour of winter: hereit was thirst and the burning heat of summer! Evenhunger seemed about to come to augment their suffer-ings, and for ten days there was no bread to be seen in thecamp. Many pilgrims now believing that they were fated neverto behold the holy sepulchre, went, according to usage,to bathe in the Jordan, and to pluck the consecrated palmin Jericho, previous to setting out for Joppa on their re-turn home; but the Arabs lay in wait, and many wereslain by their arrows. Such of the pilgrims as escapedhastened to Joppa. There were others who, despairingof ever entering the city, resolved at least to kiss its sa-cred walls, and many, as

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